Anti-Afghan sentiments run high in Pakistan

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 10

Anti-Afghan sentiments run high in Pakistan

"They roam the streets like their water buffaloes. No matter how hard you blow your car horn, they just won’t move,” said a Pakistani civil servant of the Afghan refugees living in his country. Antl-Afghan sentiments are running high in Pakistan, which has become home to the world’s largest concentration of refugees since Afghans began fleeing their country when Soviet troops invaded in 1979.

With prospects of returning home remote, many of the estimated 3 million Afghans in Pakistan have managed to carve out a life in exile similar to the one they left behind.

Their presence is proving costly for Pakistan, which also allows guerrillas fighting Afghan and Soviet troops to have supply bases in its territory.

Anti-Afghan feelings are particularly strong in the north-west frontier province where most of the Afghans live. The refugees are blamed for provoking a spate of bomb blasts in the frontier for which Pakistan holds Kabul’s communist authorities responsible. At least 30 people were killed by the blasts in July.

The victims were mostly Afghans, which prompted authorities in Peshawar to launch a

security sweep to clear the city of refugees and head off fresh attacks.

Foreign relief workers say the authorities have detained dozens of unregistered refugees , for questioning and imposed a ban on staying overnight in Peshawar. The local Government has set up special tribunals to try suspects and security has been stepped up across the province. While Pakistani feelings towards Afghans are often hostile, the refugees claim they are treated unfairly.

Pakistani relief officials said another source of tension was the 2.4 million head of livestock brought by the Afghans to Pakistan«